00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. If you've seen our channel before, you'll know that Australians love
00:04 dual cabutes, backies, pickup trucks, whatever you want to call them. Ford has just announced
00:09 that they will be remanufacturing the F-150 pickup truck to right-hand drive for the Australian
00:15 market. This news is very fresh, so I'm going to take you through everything that we know so far
00:19 before the F-150 officially goes on sale in Australia in mid-2023. Now, before we get started,
00:26 I've got to apologise for the echo. We're in our chalet here out on a shoot and we've decided to
00:31 quickly put this video together. Now, what is the story with this? So, F-150, they sell about a
00:36 million of these in the States. It's the most popular vehicle in the US and the most popular
00:40 pickup truck as well. To put that million into perspective, Australia's new car market is about
00:46 a million units in total and Ford sells that in just one vehicle, which is pretty incredible.
00:51 Now, why wouldn't they just make a right-hand drive version of the F-150 out of the States? Well,
00:56 their production capacity runs pretty much 100%, so they are completely chock-a-block. They also
01:01 have the Lightning electric vehicle now as well and they don't have any capacity to produce right-hand
01:06 drive because there are really just limited markets around the world for right-hand drive.
01:10 So instead, what Ford's doing is they've decided to convert the F-150 to right-hand drive here in
01:15 Australia. So, they'll import left-hand drive vehicles and convert them to right-hand drive.
01:19 Now, this isn't something new. We've seen other brands doing this. Chevy with the Silverado,
01:23 they all do these conversions here in Australia. And then you have other firms outside of the
01:27 manufacturers that also do the conversions and you've seen our TRX review with OzMV,
01:32 they do the same thing here in Australia. This one will be an official Ford conversion,
01:35 which means it will have a Ford warranty, five-year unlimited kilometre. You'll be able
01:40 to service it at Ford dealers and they will back all of the accessories that they sell with the
01:43 F-150 as well. How are they tracking with it? Well, they've engaged the services of a Thai firm
01:49 called RMA Automotive. These guys specialise in remanufacturing vehicles. Now, when I say
01:55 remanufacturing, this isn't just a case of moving the steering wheel and using like a
01:59 chain-driven system to make it work. This will be a bespoke product that will work completely
02:05 in right-hand drive that will be approved by Ford. And that's the important part. These guys
02:09 will have CAD drawings and all the information they need to make sure this conversion is done
02:14 properly and that it feels, looks and drives just like a right-hand drive version of the F-150 out
02:20 of the factory would. Ford is at the stage now where they have a prototype version of a right-hand
02:25 drive vehicle roaming the streets. They are in a position where they think they will have all of
02:29 this ready by mid-2023. So there's still a little bit of time to go, but it is a promising sign in
02:35 terms of what customers can expect. Now, it all comes down to two variants for the Australian
02:39 market. They will import the XLT and the Lariat. So these sit about mid-spec in terms of the F-150
02:45 range. They're both very good sellers in the States in terms of volume, which is why they've
02:49 chosen them. And they'll both be fitted with the EcoBoost petrol V6 engine. It's just under
02:54 300 kilowatts of power, close to 700 newton metres of torque. And that's all made it to a
02:58 10-speed automatic transmission. That is the most popular seller in the States. And it really sort
03:03 of blends power, torque and efficiency. So it really sort of ticks all of those boxes. You've
03:09 got to remember that the F-150, even though it looks like quite a big truck, it weighs around
03:13 the same as something like a Ford Ranger Raptor, and that's due to its aluminium construction. So
03:17 a punchy V6 EcoBoost petrol engine is going to go really well in this, especially for the Australian
03:22 market. These things can tow over 4,000 kilograms. And depending on how they certify it for the
03:27 Australian market, it means that you can actually use this as a workhorse and a daily work vehicle
03:32 for towing and all that kind of thing. We don't know what they're going to fit with the XLT and
03:35 the Lariat in terms of standard equipment, but we do know that you can get a number of different
03:40 options in the US market. And they'll probably tick a few of those boxes when it does finally
03:44 arrive in Australia. Earlier this year, we had the chance to drive an F-150 in the States, and it was
03:48 a Platinum Hybrid version. And it had two features that I really loved. One was a fold-out workbench.
03:54 It would fold the gear stick down out of the way, and then the centre console will fold into a
03:59 workbench. That means you can set up a laptop and do stuff on your work break. And then in addition
04:03 to that, you had lay-flat seats, so you could have a kip in your F-150 and then not have to worry
04:11 about finding a hotel for the night. Kind of similar to the Lexus LX that we had a look at
04:16 recently. So these are some of the great features that we expect to see. For work-related features,
04:21 we're talking about things like the ability to configure the tray's scale. And what it does is,
04:26 using the infotainment screen inside the car, it will tell you how loaded you are in terms of
04:30 payload. It can even use the taillights to give you an indication of when you are reaching maximum
04:35 payload. Then in addition to that, you have a number of different options for powering things
04:39 out of the tray. You can power up to 7 kW worth of power using the engine as a generator. So this is
04:45 a proper work truck, and if you are looking for something that is great for the weekend and
04:50 comfortable as a cruiser, but can also do your workday duties, this really will fit all of those
04:56 boxes. In terms of technology inside the car, you can get it with two versions of the SYNC 4
05:00 infotainment system, including the bigger 12-inch screen that we're going to see fitted to the new
05:04 Ranger. So this is a tech powerhouse, it is a very modern vehicle, and it is nothing like the
05:10 utes that we currently have on sale in Australia. How much is it going to cost? I know what you're
05:15 all asking. Look, I'm not going to lie, this is going to be expensive. Even though the XLT starts
05:19 in the States at around that $35,000 mark, by the time you make it a dual cab, you kit it up with a
05:24 few bells and whistles, and you do the conversion job, which they're going to have to do here in
05:28 Australia, tooling up for it, paying off the R&D cost, it's probably going to cost close to $100,000
05:33 if not over. So this is worth keeping in mind, this isn't going to be like a $60,000 ute, this will be
05:38 properly expensive, but when you drive one of these, you'll understand why it is worth paying
05:43 significantly more than what we're paying for dual cab utes here in Australia right now. So it is an
05:48 exciting time for the dual cab market in Australia. Some of you may think these are way too big for
05:53 Australian roads, and look, that might be true for some of those inner-city Sydney car parks that I
05:57 struggle to get a Ford Fiesta into, but look, at the end of the day, people are going to buy these
06:01 because they're using them for work, and potentially for country driving and towing, and that kind of
06:06 thing. So I'm excited about this. We don't really know any more details outside of what we have
06:11 today. We will keep you posted on the channel as more information comes to hand, when we do finally
06:16 get our hands on the first right-hand drive test vehicle. Now let me know what you think about this
06:21 announcement. Are you as excited as I am for the F-150 coming to Australia? This will be the first
06:25 time that Ford has done a factory-backed right-hand drive conversion program for the Australian market,
06:31 so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Ford hasn't ruled out doing the Lightning, the
06:35 electric version of the F-150, or other vehicles in the Ford stable, such as Bronco, for the Australian
06:40 market. So if this does well when it is finally released in mid-2023, I think we can expect to
06:46 see more of these coming to the Australian market, which makes me a very happy camper. So let me know
06:50 your thoughts in the comments section below. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you
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06:58 the bell icon. But until next time, take it easy.
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